Minidoka Internment National Historic Site

At the start of World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the forced relocation and incarceration of Japanese-Americans to internment camps. About 120,000 people were interned during the war; families were forced to leave their homes, businesses and belongings to live in isolated camps surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers. One of those camps was Minidoka in Idaho. Between August 1942 and October 1945, nearly 9,500 Japanese Americans from Portland, Oregon, Seattle and the surrounding areas were interned at Minidoka.

When the National Park Service established the Minidoka National Historic Site in 2001, it included only a fraction of the original 950-acre core of the camp. The park service faced a challenge to preserve this monument; it was not able to expand because available lands were outside the congressionally-authorized boundary of the site. In 2008 the Idaho congressional delegation helped pass bipartisan legislation authorizing expansion of the National Historic Site, allowing the park service to incorporate new land.

Conservation Efforts at Minidoka

Before passage of the boundary expansion, two properties neighboring the park went up for sale. The Conservation Fund purchased the properties and held them until the National Park Service could acquire and add them to the site. With this acquisition, the park service was able to reconstruct an entire barracks block at the monument, which will serve as the focal point for education and visitor use.

In 2011, we protected nearly 140 more acres: the former site of the internment camp’s fire station, water tower, military police headquarters, barracks blocks 21 and 22 and portions of adjacent blocks. The National Park Service will begin to re-establish residential block 22 on its original location, starting with the relocation of a barracks building and a camp mess hall donated by Jerome County from the county fairgrounds.

The site of the Minidoka camp is historically significant for its use after the war as well. Minidoka Relocation Center was parceled into farms and distributed to veterans through land lotteries, creating an emergent agricultural community. John Herrmann was one of the veterans who acquired some property, but when he was recalled for active duty, the development of his homestead and farm was delayed. On April 17, 1952, the North Side Conservation District and Jerome County Farm Equipment Dealers orchestrated a unique agricultural event that mobilized more than 1,500 workers and 200 state-of-the-art machines. In a single day they prepared Herrmann’s land for farming. The event was called farm-in-a-day and is a major benchmark in the development of the agriculture industry in southern Idaho.

Why This Project Matters

The acquisition of these lands allows the National Park Service to reconstruct key structures of the original site that fully tell the story of the hardships endured by Japanese Americans. These projects also generate jobs and significant economic activity in southern Idaho. The National Park Service anticipates as many as 80,000 annual visitors to the site.

Minidoka Internment National Historic Site

Minidoka: Arrival By Train

Photo courtesy The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley. Caption information from JARDA: Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives.

A train brings approximately 600 evacuees from Washington state for internment at Minidoka. Buses wait by the side of the road for the drive to the camp.

Caption information from JARDA: Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives.

Gerald, 3, David, 6, and Chester Sakura, Jr., 1-1/2, brothers, were on the train (see previous image) carrying 600 Japanese Americans from Washington state. Children made up the majority of Japanese Americans removed to internment camps during the war.

When the Japanese Americans were relocated to camps like Minidoka, they were required to leave their homes and most of their possessions. Here, the baggage of 600 Japanese Americans was offloaded from the train and is waiting to be brought to the camp.

Minidoka: Panorama Of Barracks

Photographer: Francis Stewart. Photo Courtesy of The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley. Caption information provided by JARDA: Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives.

A panorama view of the Minidoka War Relocation Authority center in August 1942. Construction of the barracks is in progress.

Mrs. Eizo Nishi, from Seattle, sits in her apartment with her daughter Eime, four, at Minidoka in 1943. All of the furniture in the apartment was constructed from scrap material. The wall paper, drapes and other furnishings were purchased from a mail order house.

Minidoka: Sakura Family Portrait

Photographer: John Bigelow. Photo courtesy The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley. Caption information from JARDA: Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives.

The Sakura family, shown here, were some of the 9,500 Japanese Americans interned at Minidoka. The four Sakura brothers, Ken, Chester, Ted and Howard, volunteered for service in the combat team of the United States Army composed of Americans of Japanese ancestry. These brothers are fulfilling a vow made to their father, who died 20 years prior, to live and die for the United States, if Japan and America should ever go to war.

Newly arrived evacuees must wait in line to register receive assigned apartments. Their new living quarters are small and quickly built with no cooking facilities or bathrooms available. A dining hall and public restrooms are all that is provided.

Looking down the rows of barracks. At extreme left is a corner of the dining hall where 275 to 300 residents of the block eat. At center background is the sanitation building including showers, toilets and washtubs.

Historical Propaganda Film About Internment Camps: “A Challenge To Democracy”

Watch the 1940-era film "A Challenge To Democracy" produced by The War Relocation Authority to get an idea of what the camps looked like, including apartments and facilities, and how the government explained the removal of Japanese to internment camps.